For this reflection, describe an activity that you have taught and reflect on how it went. Write your reflection in your Evernote notebook using the lesson reflection model introduced in class and located here to write your reflections. Copy your reflection and paste it into the wikipage linked below:
Taxonomy of Reflection
Description
Remembering:
What did I want, do, feel, and think?
What did the student(s) want, do, feel, and think?
I taught a lesson on energy flow through food webs. The exercise started with a manipulative where students acted out a model ecosystem with grass (beans), zebra(small cups) and lions (trays). They moved around beans and cups to act as animals grazing or hunting. I hoped this would be a good way to have students visualize a food web. There was also a worksheet that students worked through where they graphed the info they found in the manipulative and converted between individual organisms and biomass. Through the hand out I hoped students would see how little energy is stored in the higher trophic levels and how most of the energy transferred between levels is used for metabolism.
As I taught I handed out the assignment and supplies and then walked around the class helping groups as needed. We came back together twice for clarification and discussion before breaking back into groups to finish the assignment.
Students went through the motions but I am not sure how useful the manipulative was. The answers to how many zebra and lions could have also been calculated mathematically without needing to divide out the beans and move cups around.
Understanding:
What was important about it?
For me? For the student(s)? For both of us?
The graphing was good for the students because they have never made horizontal bar graphs. This was a great way to expose them to different kinds of graphs.
Applying:
Where can I use this again?
I can use this in food webs and also bring it up again when we discuss carrying capacity.
Analyzing:
Do I see any patterns in what I did?
I had to video tape this lesson for another class and while I watched the lesson again I noticed that I used a lot of yes no questions during the discussion. I use the yes no as a quick check for understanding but I should try to incorporate more higher level questions.
Evaluating:
What was effective and what was not effective?
The lesson was over all effective. Students were able to make the connection between the energy transferred and the use in metabolism. Some students even linked everything back around to a cycle by showing how the CO2 exhaled by the animals went back to the grass.
I am unsure of the usefulness of the manipulative. I think this part of the lesson would be more useful for lower level students that can’t as easily do the math.
I also need to stop answering students questions so easily. On the graphing section as students struggled to figure out the unit spacing I simply told them to count by 15 rather than helping them to figure it out on their own.
The lesson is also repetitive doing the same kind of graphing for individual organisms as biomass. I might cut out the first graphing exercise and spend more time asking higher level questions at the end.
I also realized I missed the opportunity to tell students why scientists use simplified models to study complex systems.
Creating:
What could I do next?
I can re-think the manipulative. Is there a way to make it more challenging so high level students can get more out of it?
I can also add more higher level questions to the discussion.
Energy and Food Webs
The African Savanah (Simplified)
Model Representations:
Trophic Level
Organism
Representation
Biomass (per individual)
Producer
Grasses
Bean
200 kg (per unit)
Primary Consumer
Zebra
Small Cup
300 kg
Secondary Consumer
Lion
Box
150 kg
Rules of our simplified food web:
Each bean represents 1 unit grass
Each zebra needs to eat 15 units grass per year
Each Lion needs to eat 5 zebra per year
Name __
What do the beans, cups, and boxes represent?
Assume your African Savanah grows 150 units grass per year (you have 150 beans in your kit). Following our model’s rules move the beans to the cups to represent zebra grazing. How many zebra can the Savanah support?
Following the model’s rules, move the cups into the boxes to represent the lions hunting zebra. How many Lions can the Savanah support?
Make a bar graph in the space below. The x-axis is the number of organisms and the y-axis is category
What trends do you see from your graph
Use the table below to transform your numbers from individuals to biomass
Organism
Number
Weight per
Total Biomass
Use the Total Biomass to make a new bar graph below. (Don’t forget Title and labels)
Calculate the % biomass transferred from each trophic level
Think of Biomass as stored energy. Where does all the energy go between trophic levels?
Add to our simplified model showing where matter and energy go in the diagram below
What did I want, do, feel, and think?
What did the student(s) want, do, feel, and think?
As I taught I handed out the assignment and supplies and then walked around the class helping groups as needed. We came back together twice for clarification and discussion before breaking back into groups to finish the assignment.
Students went through the motions but I am not sure how useful the manipulative was. The answers to how many zebra and lions could have also been calculated mathematically without needing to divide out the beans and move cups around.
What was important about it?
For me? For the student(s)? For both of us?
Where can I use this again?
Do I see any patterns in what I did?
What was effective and what was not effective?
I am unsure of the usefulness of the manipulative. I think this part of the lesson would be more useful for lower level students that can’t as easily do the math.
I also need to stop answering students questions so easily. On the graphing section as students struggled to figure out the unit spacing I simply told them to count by 15 rather than helping them to figure it out on their own.
The lesson is also repetitive doing the same kind of graphing for individual organisms as biomass. I might cut out the first graphing exercise and spend more time asking higher level questions at the end.
I also realized I missed the opportunity to tell students why scientists use simplified models to study complex systems.
What could I do next?
I can also add more higher level questions to the discussion.
Energy and Food Webs
The African Savanah (Simplified)
Model Representations:
Rules of our simplified food web:
Name __